The USPA Professional - Jump Pilot Section

Starting today we will be re-posting some interesting articles found in the Jump Pilot section of the USPA newsletter titled The USPA Professional. For those of you that have not read any of the articles, we are going to jump back to the March 5th 2020 article titled "Safety Day with Jump Pilots". 

We thought that would be a good place to start because some of you were hired after Safety Day and need to know what's involved with it and the importance of it. As us pilots know, safety is paramount!

Safety Day with Jump Pilots

Safety Day presents the perfect opportunity to strengthen the relationship between jump pilots and skydivers. Your pilots can participate in DZ safety culture by presenting a “skydiving from a pilot’s perspective” seminar, which will likely include segments on aircraft weight and balance and aircraft emergencies. Most jump pilots have scouted and planned alternate landing areas near the airport that they would use in the event of a forced landing at low altitude. Have them describe what emergencies would require the use of an off-airport landing area. Aircraft like the Cessna 182 and Cessna 206 have Federal Aviation Administration approvals that require the jump pilot to wear a pilot emergency parachute while flying skydivers. If your pilot isn’t a skydiver, consider teaching your pilot how to egress and clear the aircraft, then use the parachute. Experienced skydivers and instructors should ensure that the pilot is wearing their parachute properly. Though skydivers seldom ride down with the plane, remind pilots of turbine aircraft that there is a risk of automatic activation device activation during a rapid descent. And have a plan to escort skydivers or observers to the rear of the aircraft, away from propellers, in the event they land with the aircraft. Jump pilots and skydivers should communicate prior to beginning a flight. That conversation—or DZ policy—may address minimum exit altitude in emergencies for tandems or for skydivers with low experience. The goal of good dialogue between skydivers and jump pilots is to brief the essentials before action becomes necessary during an in-flight emergency. SkydiverDriver.com

The USPA Safety Day is March 10th

The United States Parachute Association (USPA) designates the second Saturday in March of every year to be its Safety Day and this year that happens to be on March 10th. Many of the skydivers are a little rusty from not jumping much (if at all) during the Winter months and is why it is held at this time of the year. Started in 1997, it is the day that all of the USPA drop zones around the country gather up their employees and skydivers to review safety issues in a group setting.

If this will be your first Safety Day at your DZ as a Jump Pilot, be sure and ask your DZO if it will be okay if you can speak at the general meeting.  Be sure and write down at least an outline of items that you want to speak about. Things that you want your Skydivers, Manifest and Ground Crew to know or be reminded of.  

As pilots we are taught that safety is priority #1, so do not simply stand up and say a couple words.  Take advantage of the fact that you have everyone's attention on the topic of safety.  Personally, the main topics that I always talk about are: Weight & Balance, Safety Belts, Emergency Procedures and Prop Awareness during hot fueling, just to name a few.

Remind the skydivers of the various emergencies than can happen IN an airplane. Explain what your actions as PIC will be in response to each emergency and what you want them to do (or not to do) ie. If there is an engine failure at 500ft AGL, they are not to be tapping you on the shoulder asking if they can jump out. Also, insure that the Aircraft Emergency Procedures are posted at your DZ so that all skydivers are aware of them.

The only problem with Safety Day is that it's only one day a year. If I owned a Drop Zone we would have safety meetings once a month. Even if it was a 15 minute safety review on a Saturday morning. But I don't plan on owning a DZ... I'm not a good babysitter ;)

My fellow Jump Pilots, please remember to review often and fly safe, so that you can continue to have fun!

For more information about Safety Day from the USPA's own site, visit their designated page on that topic here.

As always, if you have any questions or comments about this topic or any others relating to flying skydivers and/or our sites, please email me chris@caravannation.com and please visit our sites  skydiverdriver.com and caravannation.com


Blue Skies, 

Chris Rosenfelt

Site News: 10,000 Instagram Followers!

A cool day here at SkyDiverDriver.com!  Today the 10,000th person started following us (@skydiver.driver) on Instagram! I think that it's extra special that 95% of those followers came organically, NOT from advertising.

I want to personally thank everyone for their continued interest and constant feedback!  Your interest let's us know that we are doing something right and your feedback let's us know what you want added, so keep it coming! The more interest that there is, the more features and pages we will be adding. Within the next couple months the site will be redesigned, a newsletter and numerous pages added.

Instagram is just one of our many Social Media outlets. Some of them are used to deliver News, some are used to deliver Entertainment and ALL of them are to used maximize the reach of SkyDiverDriver.com 

If you're interested here are the links to the others! Enjoy!

- Facebook Page

- Facebook Group

- Google+ Group

- Pinterest Page

- Sky Diver Driver Blog

- Instagram Page


Also, check out our affiliate site CaravanNation.com AND all of it's Social Media outlets! Thank you all again for your continued interest and support!

~ Chris Rosenfelt

For advertising inquiries or to post a job ad, email chris@caravannation.com

Laugh at the Calf..... on the taxiway! - Video

So here I am, about 5 years ago, on a peaceful Spring Day in Northern California taxiing in my Cessna 182 with a load of skydivers on what we thought would be an uneventful hop 'n pop (low altitude skydive) day.

Little did I know that we were about to come very close to a baby cow with our propeller and eating Veal, whether we wanted to or not! As I'm proceeding down the taxiway towards the runway to take off, I see in the distance what I thought was a large black dog on the taxiway. I focused more on the creature and realized that it was either the largest dog that I have ever seen in my life or indeed NOT a dog but something else. Something that was very curious about airplanes and was not removing itself from the taxiway. In fact it started running towards the spinning propeller!

That was when I started asking my skydivers, "What the bleep is on the taxiway?" At that point all four of us start leaning so far forward that our noses were almost touching the windshield! Also, at about that point everyone's cameras started rolling. Thank God that skydivers usually have a camera mounted to some part of their body! Because if we did not have this video and had to rely on explaining it to people with just words, it would not be nearly as funny. 

During the video I am obviously being a "smart ace" when I I state that I don't have reverse. Oh, and the strange noises that you hear.... that's Kyle making Raptor noises. Why you might ask, we're not sure. A mating call maybe? Enjoy!

Hypoxia and Aerospace Physiology Training

Hypoxia - a state of oxygen deficiency in the blood, tissues, and cells sufficient to cause an impairment of body functions.  It is one thing to read about Hypoxia in a book and quite another to experience it first hand.  Thanks to a program administered by the FAA, in conjunction with Beale Air Force Base, I was able to experience Hypoxia first hand in a safe environment, and I now know what my specific symptoms are.

First, I felt light-headed, followed soon there after by an inability to concentrate (some might say that I have that problem normally, but that's another story).  This made it extremely difficult to complete the basic math problems that were presented to me by an Air Force instructor.  The final symptom I experienced and the one that encouraged me to reach for the oxygen mask, was tunnel vision.  There is only one word to explain tunnel vision…. Yikes!  I would prefer to never "experience" tunnel vision again, but the experience did serve an important purpose, because now I am aware of my personal hypoxic symptoms.  If I ever experience those symptoms while flying at altitude, I will now know what is happening and I can take immediate corrective action.

The program that I enrolled in is called Aerospace Physiology Training and is available to most civil aviation pilots that hold a valid medical certificate.  The training is conducted at the FAA facility in Oklahoma City, OK and at various Air Force Bases around the country.  The nearest training location to Long Beach, CA (where I live) is Beale Air Force Base (40 miles north of Sacramento) and the cost is only $50.  That includes a full day of interesting instruction on various topics such as Aviation Oxygen Equipment, Respiration/Circulation, Spatial Disorientation and one hour in the altitude chamber.  As a bonus you will see a lot of neat aircraft in action at Beale, plus you could fly there and add to your cross-country time!

To learn more about this program or to register for it, go to FAA.gov and click "Training and Testing" on the upper right side, followed by "Pilot Training" , then click "Airman Education Programs", and finally "Aerospace Physiology Training".  Good luck and happy flying!

Funny pilot picture

Someone sent this funny poster to me today.  It's so very true... I love it! Thought I would share. Which "pilot" is most like you?... lol